Chapter 3 The Pendant

As she was falling asleep, clutching unto the pendant, she realized it was not any an ordinary pendant as she felt the pulse against her hand and drifted away.

Maya found herself again at the place that took her when she went to the alley. She was greeted with the Silver-Haired Woman again saying, "You came back."

Maya was confused for a moment then realized that she was here again washing out all the denials she has built for the past few days.

"Yes, I'm back," Maya said while still clutching unto her pendant at which the Silver-Haired woman notice in an instant.

The room was dim and still, lit only by flickering candles set into the carved stone walls. The scent of herbs and old wood clung to the air. Maya stood near the hearth, the pendant in her palm glowing faintly with a silver-blue pulse.

"It's waking," the silver-haired woman said softly.

Maya looked up. "This pendant... I thought it was just something my mom gave me. I wore it every day without thinking. But now-" she looked down at the crescent moon, "-it feels alive."

The woman stepped closer. Her presence was steady, calming-like standing near an ocean you'd known all your life but never dared touch. "It is alive," she said. "Not in the way you know life, but in the way that magic remembers. That pendant was forged by your ancestor-the first witch in our line. It carries the essence of the moon, and the memory of every woman in our bloodline who wore it before you."

Maya's breath caught. "So it's... real. All of it."

The woman smiled gently. "Yes. And you were meant to find your way back to it. The pendant was never just a keepsake, Maya. It was a key."

There was a long pause before the woman added, "And it was mine, once. Before your mother was born."

Maya's eyes narrowed slightly. "You... know my mother?"

A flicker of sorrow passed through the woman's eyes before she nodded. "I am your grandmother, child. My name is Amara."

The name struck something deep within Maya, like a thread tugging loose from memory. The silver hair. The quiet strength in her voice. The warmth in her eyes that felt both new and deeply familiar.

"I thought you were gone," Maya said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I had to be," Amara said, reaching out slowly. "The world you were raised in wouldn't have protected you from who you are. But now that you've awakened... it's time to remember where you come from."

Maya looked down at the pendant again, the weight of it grounding her. The soft, rhythmic pulse in the silver matched the calm stirring in her chest. Her shoulders eased. A tiny, quiet smile tugged at her lips-relief, pride, and something like joy.

"I thought I'd be terrified," she said. "But I'm not. I feel like... I can finally breathe."

Amara nodded. "That's how truth feels. Like coming home."

Maya looked up, eyes brighter now. "So what happens next?"

Her grandmother's smile deepened. "Now, we begin."

Then Maya woke up before the sun.

The sky outside her window was still a deep, hushed blue, the city not yet stirring. For a few long moments, she just lay there, listening to the quiet hum of the world. The pendant rested against her collarbone, warm - as if it, too, had been dreaming.

No part of her doubted what had happened. No part of her wanted to.

She sat up slowly, a strange calm anchoring her chest. It wasn't the frantic, restless energy she'd grown used to - the kind that buzzed through every workday and bled into sleepless nights. This was different. Still. Certain.

By seven, she was dressed and on her way to the office, her resignation letter neatly folded in her bag.

She walked into the accounting firm with the same ease she always had, but something had shifted. The fluorescent lights felt too harsh. The whir of printers too loud. Everything inside her screamed that she didn't belong here anymore - not with this desk, these numbers, this life.

Her manager looked up as she approached, confused by her quiet determination.

"I'm leaving," Maya said simply, placing the letter on his desk.

He blinked. "What?"

"I'm resigning. Effective immediately."

"Maya-what happened? Is this about your workload? You've just been tired lately, you said-"

She gave him a small, polite smile. "I'm not tired anymore. I'm just ready to go."

By noon, her things were packed in a single box.

No goodbyes. No explanations.

Back in her apartment, she didn't waste time. She moved like someone who had already stepped into a new life. Her clothes. Some books. A journal. The pendant never left her neck.

She hesitated at the door only once. Just long enough to breathe it all in - the small, ordinary life she'd once built, now quietly folding behind her like a chapter closed.

Then she left, the city rising around her like a place she no longer had to survive.

She was going back to Amara.

Back to the coven.

Back to herself.